It will be "good to meet" Narendra Modi, says British PM David Cameron

NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a whirlwind tour through India en-route to Sri Lanka, said on Thursday he was open to meet Narendra Modi as declared his respect for Manmohan Singh’s decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM).

In India for less than 24 hours during which he met the prime minister in Delhi before flying to Kolkata to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Cameron told a group of Indian business leaders that he was “open to meeting all elected leaders including Narendra Modi”.

“We have started some relations with Gujarat already. The connection and engagement is there. I think the engagement should continue,” he said, the second time in as many weeks he has spoken about the Gujarat chief minister and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate who the UK shunned for years.

Asked if he would like to meet Modi in near future, Cameron said: “In time, yes. It is good to meet. We have an approach of meeting all politicians and leaders. In the end, it will be for the people of India whom to elect. But I’m open to meeting elected leaders.” Soon after Diwali and ahead of his trip to India, Cameron had reached out to Modi by stating that his government is engaging with the Gujarat chief minister.

The Cameron government had changed its position on Modi in line with EU’s policy last year. British High Commissioner to India James Bevan met Modi in October 2012 in Gandhinagar. Gujarat and West Bengal has been identified as investment destinations by the UK. Talking about the future of India-UK relations, Cameron said the two countries were democracies and faced common challenges.

“We both have challenges to fight terrorism and we both want to be successes in this global economic race that we are engaged in. We have ties of the past - the history, the language and the culture. But it is the future that excites me, on what Britain and India can do together.”

Later during his hour-long meeting with the Indian PM at the 7, Race Course Road, Cameron reviewed the progress in economic and commercial ties. Investments topped the agenda of discussions besides the situation in Afghanistan-Pakistan region and the issue of immigration and visa bonds.

Official sources said Singh and Cameron discussed the Bangalore-Mumbai Economic Corridor and were happy with the progress made, notably that the terms of reference for the feasibility study of the BMEC had been finalised as also the request for proposals.